I make it to the house before my brothers. I park down the road, some of my men are already stationed. They inform me that our guards have been removed and replaced with some other men waiting for us. We make a plan, not waiting for the rest of our men or my brothers. Too much time has gone by already.

With limited men, I tell them all we need to move quietly. I don’t know how many men are inside and I don’t want to alert them that we’re here.  I have some of my men move to both sides of the property while I take Sam and Sonny with me. I go straight to the front entrance.

We take them by surprise before they can fire off a warning shot. I strangle the one in my arms, making him fall to the ground showing no mercy. Sam and Sonny do the same. We start running towards the house, watching for any other guards. We take two more men out before making it to the door.

Once at the door, I open it slowly after telling my men to hold back in case someone comes up from behind us. I enter the house and see Jeffery passed out on the floor. He’s not dead, I can see his chest rising and falling.

I hear a man’s voice talking. I start walking to the living room with my gun raised. When I round the corner, I see all of our women sitting in the room with the doc. I look over, that’s when I see Dicky Shaw, he has my mother by the neck, holding her tight to his body.

“I heard you coming, Zander, not too light on your feet, are you? I guess with your size it’s hard to sneak up on someone.”

I look over to Murphy and see she’s scared and shaking. But she’s alive and doesn’t seem to be hurt.

“You’re going to let go of my mother now, Dicky.”

“You think you’re in charge here, Zander? I’m fucking in charge! Not you!”

Murphy hollers out, I turn to see what’s wrong. She’s hunched over, holding her stomach. I turned my back on Dicky for just a second, then I hear and feel a gunshot. I fall down to my knees. Murphy cries out, running to me, she falls in front of me, screaming my name.

* * *

I hear something and look over, Zander’s there, holding his gun, coming around the corner. Dicky hears him too. He grabs Catherine and wraps his arm around her neck. When Zander comes in, Dicky addresses him, telling him he heard him coming.

All of a sudden, another contraction hits me hard. I holler out in pain and then I hear the gunshot. When I look up, I see Zander fall, then I see the blood. I scream, “No!” I run to him and fall in front of him. “Please, God! No! Zander!”

I’m crying when Zander grabs my hand. I look up and see him whispering to me, “I love you.” I can’t control my tears and fear, looking in his eyes seeing the man I love hurt. I don’t know what's going to happen, is he dying or will we make it out of here to live the rest of our lives together. I’ve wasted so much time with him. “Stay with me Zander, stay with me!”

Dicky yells, “Lay your gun to the side, Zander, I’m not ready for you to die yet. I want you to see me kill your mother first. Now lay the gun down on the side and don’t you move!”

Zander lays the gun down and pushes it to the side. My hands fly up to the blood running down his chest. I tear his shirt to look for the wound; he’s been shot in the shoulder, it looks bad. There’s so much blood.

Zander reaches for my face. My tears are running so fast down my face I can barely breathe.

Dicky yells again, “I said don’t move or I will kill you before you get to witness them all die!”

I look at the gun on the side of Zander, then look into the eyes of the man I love. I see my future when I look at him. I look around the room and see my family. My children’s family. I scream out and fall on my hands. When Zander goes to grab me, Dicky fires another warning shot. “I said don’t move!”

Zander growls out, I slowly go to sit back up. Dicky yells, “Stand up, you stupid bitch, move away from him. I’m not ready for this to end!”

I watch as he throws Catherine down to the floor. I look at her as she watches my hand. Zander’s body is covering mine as I rise slowly. When I’m back standing I raise my arm with the gun held high. I start shooting until I empty the chamber, shell after shell is flying to the floor. I can hear faint screams, but nothing registers as my fear has me pulling the trigger, over and over. I watch as Dicky’s body jerks back and forth until he falls to the floor covered in blood. I’m petrified, I keep pulling the trigger even when there are no shots coming out. I feel Zander wrap his hand around my wrist, he’s calling my name, but it’s like a distant echo in my mind. I finally feel his hands wrapped around my face, calling me, bringing me home.

“Murphy, Murphy, look at me, baby! Red, he’s dead, he’s gone, baby! Look at me!”

My eyes flash over to his face and see the pain he’s carrying for me. I drop the gun and fall into his arms. Hugging him for dear life. My body is shaking so hard that I fear I will pass out. “I have you, baby, I have you.”

I look up and see tears in his eyes, seeing his determination to be here for me. It only takes me a minute to use his strength to push myself back. I wipe my eyes of the tears and see the blood covering his shirt. I yell, “Doc, Doc, he needs you, please help him!”

The doctor comes running, making Zander sit down. We start hearing gunfire from outside, we all jump, but Zander says, “There’s my brothers, always late to the party.”

“This isn’t funny, Zander.”

He grabs my hand and says, “I know, baby, I know.” Gabriel, Liam, and Vin all run into the room, frantically checking out the situation.

Gabriel and Liam run to their wives and check on Catherine. Theo is next entering the room, he starts yelling towards Catherine. Running to her, pushing the men out of the way. He grabs her and starts kissing all over her face. Then he notices the bruise on her face and kisses it lightly.

I hear him telling her, “I love you, Katie. Jesus, woman, I love you.”

Zander keeps his eyes locked on me as the the doctor works on him. I can tell he’s worried and scared for me, I am too. Our concentration is broken when Dr. Martin reassures me that Zander’s not going to die that he just needs to get the blood to stop running from the wound.

Then I hear Forrest yelling out my mother’s name, he runs in, running straight for her. He doesn’t grab her or hug her tight, but you can tell that’s all he wants to do. I’m standing in the middle of the room in shock or whatever it is, but as I look around the room at all the people in my life, my guilt for killing the man still lying on the floor starts to subside some. I killed him for our survival. He wanted to kill my husband, my family and I know without a shadow of a doubt he would have done just that. I had no choice, I had no choice.

I don’t know how long I stand here, taking in all my surroundings, frozen in fear, but then a pain grips ahold of me so strong that I have to bend over in pain.

“Ahh, fuck, ahh, shit!” Catherine runs over to me, Zander jumps up to my side. Fallon yells out, “Murphy, your water just broke. Oh my God. Doctor, her water broke.”

I look down, seeing that my baby blue dress is wet and covered with splatters of blood. I start to panic; my arms start flailing around, what do I do?

Zander grabs me, yelling, “Calm down, Red, calm down and breathe, it’s okay!”

“Why are you yelling at me? You calm down!”

Dr. Martin makes Zander sit back down while he looks me over. He tells Catherine to start timing my contractions then goes back to work on Zander.

Zander yells, “Get off me, tend to her, I’m fine!”

“Sit down, Zander! Your mom is monitoring her, I need to check on you.”

Zander still tries to get up until Theo comes around, telling him to stay still. He listens but never wavers from watching me closely. After a few minutes, Catherine tells Dr. Martin we have some time, my contractions are not too close together.

Zander looks pissed that the doctor is still worrying about him and not me. Finally, he tells the him, “Pull it out, just do it! It! I’m not missing my babies being born.”

Liam fetches Dr. Martin’s medical bag, and the rest assist in holding Zander down while the doctor tries to pull the bullet fragments out of his shoulder. Zander grunts out in pain, not wanting to scream. Dr. Martin tells us we’re lucky the bullet or fragments didn’t do any major damage, but he says he needs to look at it closer once we get to the hospital.

“Close it!” Zander yells at the doctor. “Just close it for now. We need to get to the hospital.”

Right then, I get another contraction. Dr. Martin starts working on closing the wound on Zander’s shoulder. I don’t know how Zander’s doing it without any drugs. That’s the first thing I’m getting when I get to the hospital.

Two more contractions hit hard before the doctor finishes with Zander. With each contraction Zander tries to stand to get to me. The girls, along with Catherine and my mom help me to the hall, where Avery has another dress waiting for me to change into. She then runs to the living room to give Zander a change of shirt. Everyone starts running around. Then I see a man helping Jeffery up off the floor. Zander’s crew starts moving in to clean the place of Dicky’s body and all the others outside. Vin is yelling orders while everyone is frantically cleaning as much of themselves up as they can.

Zander runs to me with his new shirt, right when another contraction hits. He tries to pick me up to carry me out, but he grunts out in pain. Gabriel comes around and tells him that he’ll do it. But Zander shoves him, “Not you, Vin can carry her!”

“I don’t need to be carried. I can walk. Shit!” Another contraction hits.

Vin runs to me and picks me up, carrying me to the SUV. I hear Zander growl again, but I can’t care less, just get me to the hospital so I can get some drugs.

Vin and Theo tell us they are staying behind to help with the clean-up, but they will meet us all at the hospital. My mom, Dr. Martin, Zander and I are all in one vehicle, with Liam driving. The rest are behind us in another car.

The drive is not an easy one, my contractions start getting stronger and they’re coming quicker. With each one, I squeeze Zander’s hand as he yells at Liam to go faster. Zander starts to panic; my mom has to remind him that I need him to be strong. He gets it together and holds my hand and coaches my breathing. I want to slap him and kiss him all at the same time.

We finally make it to the hospital. Dr. Martin runs out first, getting a wheelchair and yelling orders. When we get into a room, Dr. Martin changes into his gown and gloves as I strip down and Zander helps me into my gown. A nurse comes in to assist, she sees Zander’s blood seeping through his new shirt, she tries to ask questions, but Catherine shuts her up. The nurse starts asking about the bruise on the doctor’s face, and this time he yells at her to mind her fucking business and do her job. I’m shocked for a second until another contraction hits strong. Dr. Martin starts to examine me, he tells me that I am going fast now. He says the babies are in position and I am eight centimeters dilated. I ask for drugs, but he says it’s too late.

“What the hell do you mean it’s too late!?”

“I mean, Murphy, you are going to have them naturally, and it will happen soon.”

He turns his back to me and tells the nurse to start cleaning Zanders' shoulder, but Zander won’t let the nurse close to him. He refuses to leave my side.

Catherine goes to walk out, but I shout, “Stay, please!” She turns around, looks at me, smiling, then looks at my mom for her approval. Mom nods to her, Catherine returns to her position by mom and they hold hands, waiting. I start screaming; it feels like the babies are trying to rip me apart.

I grab Zander’s shirt, cursing him. “I hate you right now! You are never touching me again!”

Our moms start laughing, and Zander says, “The hell I’m not. I plan on having you knocked up every year.”

I scream out in another contraction, I want to kill him, but I grab his hand and squeeze. The contractions start coming faster and harder. Dr. Martin says he wants to check me again. When he does, Zander looks over eager to see what’s happening.

“Well, Murphy, it’s time. You are fully dilated, I need you to start pushing.”

“I’m not ready, no, no! I don’t want to do this!”

My mom comes to the other side, squeezing my hand, telling me I can. “Chéri, listen to me. Calm down, you can do this. You can do anything; those babies need you to push them out, so damn it, push!”

Zander kisses me and pushes my leg into my chest while pulling me up. “Come on, baby, push!”

I start pushing until I can’t go anymore. Zander starts wiping my face off with a cloth. “Come on, Red, you can do this, you are one of the strongest women I know, our boys need you to push them out.”

Dr. Martin interrupts and says, “How can you be so sure they’re boys, Zander?”

Zander rolls his eyes at him and dismisses his question. I start pushing again.

Finally, after what feels like forever I push our firstborn out. I hear a cry as I fall back onto the bed. Dr. Martin hands our baby off to the nurse and starts looking back down at me.

Zander asks, “Is he fine, Doc, is he fine?”

“Yes, Zander, the baby’s fine. Look, I don’t have time for you now. Murphy, I need you to push again, it looks like the other one doesn’t want to wait any longer, come on, push.”

Before I know what’s going on, Zander has me in position again, trying to egg me on to push. “I’m so tired.”

“I know, baby, one more, baby, and you’re done.”

I start pushing, giving it all I have. It doesn’t take long. About two more pushes and our second baby is born screaming. The doctor starts laughing.

Zander eyes him and says, “What the hell, man, what’s so funny?”

Dr. Martin turns our baby around to show us and says, “Zander, I would like to inform you that you are the proud father of two beautiful baby girls.”

“Girls! What do you mean girls?”

The nurse comes over, bringing me baby number one and then baby number two. The nurse opens one of our daughter’s legs and says, “Girls.”

Zander looks down, baffled, he starts to sway and then the big oaf passes out on the floor. Catherine and my mom run to him in laughter. All I can do is look back at my girls and smile. I tell them, “You just gave Daddy the biggest surprise of his life. Make sure you two keep doing that, keep his big ass on his toes.”